Republic of Ireland will be facing Germany in a Euro 2016 qualfier game at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Thursday.
A draw against Ireland will confirm a berth in the Euro 2016 for Germany and a win will take them to the top of the points table.
On the other hand, this will be a crucial game for Ireland. If they lose to Germany and if Poland beats Scotland in the other game, then Martin O Neil's men in green will finish third in the points table and they will also lose their chance of qualifying for the Euro 2016 automatically. So Ireland is looking for nothing but a win.
Ireland have had a solid Euro 2016 qualifying campaign so far. They have only lost one match in their eight games and that was against Scotland. Ireland have been defensively pretty strong as they have conceded only five goals in eight matches and it also includes two clean sheets.
The last time Ireland met Germany in Gelsenkirchen, they picked up one point from that match. Toni Kroos had provided Germany an early lead but John O'Shea equalised in the 94th minute of the game.
Germany's last visit to Ireland yielded a crushing 6-1 victory over the hosts. Joachim Low will be looking for those three important points that will not confirm their berth in the Euro 2016 but also will help their retain their position at the top of the points table. But Germany cannot lose this contest. That will cause a lot of problems for the Low and his men in white.
Germany have won their last five matches and will look to make it six in a row. Among these five victories, two came against Poland and Scotland as well. And thus they are sitting at the top of the table. Defensively Low's men have not been at the their best. They only have three clean sheets in their eight games. Out of those three clean sheets, two came against Gibraltar and Georgia. Low will be counting on Thomas Muller's form, who has found the back of the net eight times in this campaign.
Expected lineups:
Ireland: Given; Christie, O'Shea, Clark, Brady; Gibson, McCarthy, Hoolahan, Hendrick; Keane, Walters.
Germany: Neuer; Hector, Hummels, Boateng, Can; Kroos, Schweinsteiger, Gundogan; Ozil, Muller; Gotze.
Where to Watch live:
The 2016 Euro Qualifier game between Republic of Ireland and Germany is scheduled for a 7:45 pm local time(12:15 am IST, 7:45 pm BST and 2:45pm ET) start. The live coverage of the match will be available in India on SONY KIX and the same game can be streamed live on Livsports.
Viewers in UK and Ireland can tune into Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports HD1 to watch Republic of Ireland vs Germany. Sky Go will stream the match live.
Audience in US can switch to ESPN3 and stream the same on Watch ESPN.
Football fans in Germany can catch the live action between Republic of Ireland and Germany on B5 Akutell and RTL. The live streaming option will be available on HR Online.
